According to the ministry's spokesperson, "there is a need to abandon confrontation and Cold War-era thinking"

Share

1 pages in this article

BEIJING, March 27. /TASS/. The situation surrounding the poisoning of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal should be resolved based on real facts and in compliance with international law, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a briefing on Tuesday.

"We have been keeping a close eye on the situation," she told reporters. "We believe that the Skripal case should be resolved through talks based of real facts," the Chinese diplomat added. According to Hua Chunying, "under the circumstances, each party should abide by international law and refrain from any paradoxical actions… There is a need to abandon confrontation and Cold War-era thinking," she added.

"China stands for equal relations between all countries, based on the principle of mutual benefit," Hua Chunying concluded.

Skripal incident and expulsion of diplomats

A number of EU member countries, the United States, Canada and Australia earlier announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of former Russian Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer Sergei Skripal, which the UK blames on Russia without providing any evidence. The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that these unfriendly actions will not remain unanswered.

On March 4, Skripal and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May said the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union. London expelled 23 Russian diplomats. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia. In retaliation to the UK’s steps, 23 British diplomats were expelled, the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg was closed and the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia.